Questions are being raised after Albuquerque Police began chasing a speeding sport utility vehicle earlier in June.

Police said the driver of the SUV refused to pull over, but Albuquerque police stopped pursuing the speeding vehicle, because of who was inside -- Gov. Bill Richardson.

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Officials said police began following the SUV on June 2, near the "Big I" conjunction of Interstate 25 and Interstate 40. An officer in an unmarked police vehicle spotted the governor's Lincoln Navigator with an "unknown license plate because it's being obscured by bikes," according to a police recording.

According to the report, the officer called for backup when the Navigator was "traveling at a high rate of speed along the frontage road; failure to stop."

The officer then said the driver flashed a badge that looked like it might be that of the state police. Shortly afterward, the chase ended abruptly because the officer recognized the passenger.

"Disregard," the officer said. "It looks like the governor."

No one from the governor's staff would comment on the incident.

However, Peter Olsen from the Department of Public Safety said, "This was a simple misunderstanding."

Olsen said because there was no way for the governor's state police driver to verify it was really an APD officer chasing them, the driver did what he was trained to do: take evasive action and not to stop.

APD spokesman John Walsh said the problem has been addressed.

"There was protocol put in place so state police can now have access to our dispatch center," Walsh said.

Action 7 News reported that this was not the first time the governor's driver was stopped for speeding.

In September of 2003, the driver was clocked at over 100 mph. At the time, consumer rights activist Ralph Nader wrote to Richardson urging him to ease off the gas. Karl Koenig wrote an editorial about the incident.

"I'd like to see him behave pure and simple," Koenig said. "I'd like to see him follow the law that he seems to expect the rest of us to."

"I want to talk about health care and education, not about how fast the governor drives," Richardson told Action 7 News reporter Matt Grubbs at the time of the incident.

The report from the recent incident did not indicate how fast the governor's car was going during the brief chase.

The Albuquerque Journal reported in Tuesday's edition that the governor was heading to a news conference about freeway congestion at the time of the incident.